Sainsbury's

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The Competition and Markets Authority is proposing that any merger between Asda - owned by US retailer Walmart - and Sainsbury's should be blocked for ten years.

The proposal is outlined in documents published by the CMA following its decision to block the block the tie-up last month.

The CMA said the deal would raise prices for consumers, at the supermarkets' petrol stations and lead to longer checkout queues.

The competition watchdog is inviting comments by 5pm on Monday 24 June 2019.

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Sainsbury’s chief executive Mike Coupe was not his usual tiggerish self when presenting this set of results. He gave the impression of someone trying to make the best of a less than ideal outcome – which, of course, he was.

In his ideal world he would have been talking about the final preparations for the merger with Asda, but that was blown out of the water by the Competition and Markets Authority last week.

Instead he was left to describe a fairly mundane set of annual results in glowing terms.

They show a company that is fighting hard on all fronts – trying to compete against aggressive low-price rivals and a resurgent Tesco, while at the same time finding the money to improve its stores, reduce debt and maintain dividend payments to shareholders.

Once you include restructuring costs, a £46m hit on the failed deal with Asda, statutory profits were down one-third to £219m – a tiny number for a company that has annual sales of £32bn.

Sainsbury insiders had warned against expecting a big strategic relaunch, a Plan B, after the Asda failure. Shareholders will still be disappointed that there wasn’t one, and will no doubt be pressing hard on whether – or rather when – it will emerge.

More on Sainsbury's.

John Moore, senior investment manager at Brewin Dolphin, said the figures were robust.

"The business may have lost market share, but it is still performing at a good level, aided by the integration and enhanced offering of Argos – the Asda transaction would have offered the potential to push this to another level.

While there is a commitment to increase and accelerate investment in the business from management, investors will be waiting for more concrete plans in the months ahead to see what Sainsbury’s next step will be," he said.

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Sainsbury's shares are the biggest risers the FTSE this morning after better than expected full year underlying profit.

Shares in the supermarket giant are up more than 4.7% to 232.95p. Bear in mind, however, that shares tumbled in February from about 288p after a proposed merger between Sainsbury's and rival Asda was dealt a blow by the competition watchdog.